


Would you care if I came back?

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [80]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Background Relationships, Banshee Lydia Martin, Banter, Beacon Hills' supernatural meetings, Bickering, Cora Hale & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Cora Hale is a Little Shit, Enemies to Lovers, Established Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Hale Family Feels, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Matchmaking, Popular Lydia Martin, School Projects, They're still werewolves though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25964095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: “And finally, Cora and Lydia.”Cora froze in her seat at the proclamation, her jaw clenching almost painfully as she angled her body towards the right side of the room and caught sight of Lydia Martin frowning at her. She wondered if there was a chance she could convince Mister Yukimura to pair her with Theo instead.She had known the redhead forever, and she didn’t want to spend any more time with her than was strictly necessary. Was it not enough that they had to see each other every month during Beacon Hills’ secret supernatural meetings?Or: Cora & Lydia are forced to work together on a project together. The two girls hate each other, until they don't.
Relationships: Cora Hale/Lydia Martin
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [80]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Kudos: 31





	Would you care if I came back?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



Cora wasn’t exactly sure what she had been expecting from her senior AP World History class, but she knew it involved a lot more studying and a lot less group projects.

They were only halfway through their first semester and their teacher had somehow already managed to assign them three different pair projects. Cora loved Mister Yukimura, she really did, but he needed to stop trying to make them cooperate and start trying to make them learn more efficiently. It was in moments like these that Cora understood where Kira got all of her hopeless optimism from.

“We’ve gotten to focus on the Americas and Asia, which means it’s time for us to concentrate on another area of the world…” the teacher prompted, sighing when none of Cora’s classmates spoke up – not that he had really expected any of them to. “Europe. Just like the past two projects, I’ll be forming duos and assigning a country to each pair, so you know the drill.”

Cora rolled her eyes, already knowing that she wouldn’t be paired up with one of her friends. Their teacher knew who got along, and it seemed like he was determined to split them up. Even though Stiles and Kira were both in Cora’s History class, none of them had been paired up for the past two projects. She doubted it would change now.

“… Stiles and Danny for Sweden,” Kira’s dad announced, earning himself a groan from Stiles and a bug-eyed look from Danny. “Kira and Theo for Greece.”

If stares could have killed, Cora was pretty sure Kira would have murdered her father with a single look. It was no secret that Theo didn’t get along with anyone, and even Kira’s endless supply of smiles couldn’t do much against a guy like him. It didn’t help that Kira had once had a _huge_ crush on him.

“Zoey and Allison for Portugal,” their reached continued as though he wasn’t aware of the many glares being sent his way. “And finally, Cora and Lydia for France.”

Cora froze in her seat at the proclamation, her jaw clenching almost painfully as she angled her body towards the right side of the room and caught sight of Lydia Martin frowning at her. She wondered if there was a chance she could convince Mister Yukimura to pair her with Theo instead. Cora would pick the broody – and debatably evil – boy over Lydia any day.

She had known the redhead forever, and she didn’t want to spend any more time with her than was strictly necessary. Was it not enough that they had to see each other every month during Beacon Hills’ secret supernatural meetings? They had been forced to play with each other since they were old enough to sit up straight, and now they were being forced to _work together_ too?

Either Mister Yukimura had an odd sense of humour – which, fair enough, was quite true – or he was purposefully trying to ruin Cora’s life.

“Projects are due in two weeks, and I don’t want to hear anyone complain about their partner,” he called out as the bell rang and all the students rushed out of the room. “No changing countries either!”

Cora stormed out of the room before he could say anything else, trusting Stiles and Kira to know where she was going. It wasn’t like they had thousands of lunch period hideouts.

By the time she reached their spot at the back of the library, lunchbox in hand and ready to be devoured, she was ready to tear down the entire school and almost wolfed out when Malia grabbed onto her arm unannounced.

“Chill,” the other girl raised her hands as non-threateningly as she could manage. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m almost certain it’s not worth getting a lecture from your mom about changing whilst at school. Just take a few deep breaths and think this through. It’s not the end of the world. Or at least I don’t think it is; this isn’t supernatural-related, is it?”

“Nope,” Stiles snickered, clapping Cora on the back and ignoring her snarl as he threw himself onto the ground, leaning against Kira as the kitsune sat down next to him. “She’s just angry because Ken assigned partners for another project and she ended up with _Lydia_.”

“Ouch,” Malia winced, patting Cora’s shoulder gently before dropping back down and smiling at their other friends. “Who did you guys end up with?”

“Freaking Theo Raeken,” Kira grimaced. “I know he’s not an idiot and actually gets decent grades in this class, but what are the chances that he’ll help with the project? Be honest with me.”

“Zero to none,” Malia deadpanned. “What about you, Stiles?”

“I’m with his highness Danny Mahealani,” Stiles rolled his eyes, taking an angry bite out of his sandwich and ignoring the girls’ disgusted looks as he talked around it. “Does your dad thinks it’s funny to pair us up with all the popular kids? What does he think he’s going to get out of this, exactly? A mismatched study group?”

“In his dreams,” Cora snorted. “I may have to work with Lydia for two weeks, but our relationship doesn’t have to change beyond that. We’ll ace this project, even though I doubt she’ll help me any more than Theo will help Kira, and then we’ll go back to ignoring each other. Just as I like it.”

Cora tried not to sound too bitter as she spoke, even though she was probably failing miserably. The bad thing about having two friends who could tell when she was lying – Stiles may not have been supernatural, but his observation skills more than made up for it – was that she couldn’t get away with bluffing, _ever_. So when Stiles and Malia raised their eyebrows disbelievingly in unison, Cora didn’t even sigh. She hadn’t been expecting any less from them.

“That was weak even by my standards,” Kira shook her head disappointedly. “Besides, I don’t know why you still try to act like you hate Lydia. The pretence stopped working years ago, and none of you think any less of you for it.”

“I _do_ hate her,” Cora snapped, lying through her teeth even though she knew her efforts were useless.

The thing was Cora didn’t hate Lydia at all. The two of them had been best friends when they were younger and, if it were up to Cora, they still would be. But high school and time hadn’t agreed with her, and it had been years since she and Lydia had gotten along. The redhead had her perfect group of popular friends, and Cora had her little gang of misfits. It worked for them, even when Cora wished for more.

“Whatever you say, Hale Junior,” Stiles chuckled. “Whether you hate her or not, though, you’re going to have to find a way to work with her for a few weeks. Maybe we _should_ form a study group.”

“Jackson would probably agree to that, if only to keep on eye on his boyfriend and make sure you’re not stealing him away,” Kira waggled her eyebrows at Stiles. “I swear that guy is the most jealous person I’ve ever met.”

“As if I would ever date someone like _Danny_ ,” Stiles scoffed. “The dude may be attractive, but he’s no Hale.”

“Hale Junior here! Stop speaking before you say anything incriminating,” Cora exclaimed, scrunching her nose up at the reminder of just _who_ Stiles found most attractive. “Suddenly I think I’d rather talk about Lydia. A study group sounds like a wonderful idea, even if it’ll be more of a research group. Do you think I could convince Allison to help us with our project?”

“I think Lydia will probably do all the convincing herself,” Malia pointed out. “I doubt she’s going to let her best friend struggle with a project on the country she’s from. Don’t worry about it too much and try not to scare all the project partners away before you guys can get started.”

“Why on earth would I scare them away?” Cora frowned. “I actually want you guys to do well, and I doubt your dad will let us get away with a one-person presentation.”

“Yeah no, there’s no way that’s happening,” Kira shook her head. “I don’t know why he’s suddenly so big on the team thing, but it’s starting to get on my nerves. He’s been applying his new philosophy to family life too, and I swear my mom almost slapped him the other day.”

“If I were his wife, I would definitely slap him,” Cora said seriously. “And then make sure he knew that pairing people who hate each other together is never a good idea.”

“At least it’s people we know,” Stiles pointed out. “Although I have to admit I would have much rather been paired with Cora, since that would have meant time spent at the Hale house.”

“Stop thinking about Derek when I’m around!” Cora winced, covering her ears as Stiles smirked evilly. “I don’t want to hear it, please don’t say anything, shut up, shut up, _please_ don’t talk about my brother. I get that the two of you are madly in love and in your honeymoon phase or whatever, but I don’t want to hear about any of it.”

As happy as Cora was for her best friend and her brother, she really didn’t need to know about the details of their relationship. All she needed was confirmation that the two of them were doing well, nothing more.

“Seriously, how would you react if I started talking about Scott like that, huh?” Cora raised her eyebrows, pouting when Stiles only shrugged nonchalantly.

“I don’t really care what you say about Scott,” he answered. “It’s not like we’re _actually_ related. I mean, it might be a bit strange to hear the biggest lesbian I know moon over my step-brother, but I’d get over it. However, I’m pretty sure I’m safe, since there is the whole ‘biggest lesbian ever’ thing going on with you.”

“He has a point,” Malia agreed, raising her hands in surrender when Cora narrowed her eyes at her. “I’m just saying, there’s no way you would go for Scott, especially since we all know you’re in love with-”

“ _So_ , Greece, huh?” Stiles interrupted, shaking his head wildly at Malia and turning towards Kira, obviously desperate to get the attention off Cora.

She appreciated it, as she appreciated everything her best friend did for her, but the harm had been done. Every time her love life was brought up, the lingering reminder that Cora was too hooked up on Lydia to fall for anyone else was like a dark cloud over their group’s heads.

They had tried to set her up with other girls – repeatedly and enthusiastically – but none of them had worked out, and they all knew why. Lydia had stolen Cora’s heart when they were only twelve, and she had never given it back. Instead, she had crushed it repeatedly by slowly drifting away from Cora and proving that she didn’t need the brunette to survive.

Sure, Cora had found her own group of friends and had learned to function without Lydia’s constant presence in her life, but there was still a Lydia-shaped hole in her heart that she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to fill.

So, she hated Lydia, at least superficially. She glared back at the redhead when Lydia scowled at her, and she tried her best to get on Lydia’s nerves when the popular kids were being particularly annoying. She knew she was only antagonising her ex-best friend further, but she would rather have Lydia hate her than forget about her.

“We should do the group research thing,” she blurted out, interrupting whatever conversation her friends had move onto. “I mean, it’ll make things a lot easier for all of us, and it might motivate the others to do their part of the project. Besides, how bad could it possibly be?”

“Do you want me to actually answer that?” Malia raised her eyebrows.

“No, she doesn’t,” Kira slapped a hand over Malia’s mouth. “I’m sure everything will be alright. We just have to present a united front and act as though we aren’t all seething on the inside. Theo will probably murder me for making him socialise with two groups of people he despises, and Malia and Scott will have to occupy themselves somehow, but it’ll be fine.”

“Hey, why am _I_ stuck with the puppy?” Malia gaped.

“It’s what you get for not taking AP History,” Stiles shrugged. “We have to deal with our partners, and you get to deal with Scott whilst also trying to distract Jackson so he doesn’t distract Danny.”

“Suddenly I’m perfectly happy with Theo,” Kira snickered, slapping Malia on the back supportively. “Does Saturday morning work for everyone? We could meet up at the Hale House, since I know Lydia’s gang is dying to see the inside of it outside of supernatural meetings.”

“Count me in,” Stiles grinned, winking at Cora playfully. “Time to get this disaster research party ready to go.”

* * *

“Cora, Malia! Your friends are here!”

The brunette was out of her room and racing down the stairs as soon as her mother called her, cursing colourfully when she realised Derek had still managed to get to the front door before her. Stiles had already glued himself to his boyfriend, smiling and leaning in for a kiss as Kira rolled their eyes behind the couple.

“Save me, Cora,” the kitsune groaned, stepping around the boys and hugging Cora tightly. “I don’t want to do this. I _really_ don’t want to do this. Do you think there’s a chance we could convince Peter to scare them all away?”

“Lydia has known him for far too long to be scared, and Allison would probably shoot him in the face if he did anything even remotely werewolf-like. She can barely tolerate _us_ , let alone my borderline insane uncle,” Cora pointed out, smiling sheepishly at Malia as the werecoyote entered the room and caught the tail-end of their conversation. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Malia shrugged. “It’s not like I don’t know how strange and dangerous my dad can be. Just please don’t tempt him? I’m pretty sure he despises Scott and Jackson on principle, and he gets really weird around Lydia.”

“That might be because she once predicted his death or something of the sort,” Cora explained easily, shrugging when all her friends turned wide eyes on her. “What? We were young and Lydia was still trying to understand her powers. You remember this Derek, right?”

“No, I do not,” her brother snorted. “I think I would remember something as important as uncle Peter finally getting what he deserves. The others are here, so I’m going to leave you alone to deal with your teenage drama. And Stiles, if you ever need a break…”

“Hale Junior!!” Cora cried out, glaring at her friends and brother when they only laughed at her. “You’re all the worst. Now get out of here before the others arrive and get scared away by your scowl, Der-Bear.”

“Don’t call me that,” Derek growled as he backed out of the room, probably on his way to find Laura and sulk at her about not getting to spend time with Stiles.

The next time Cora inhaled, Lydia’s familiar scent filled her nostrils, confirming what Derek had already said. Her little clique had clearly decided to arrive all at once, probably to try and overpower them in their own territory, but Cora wasn’t going to let that happen.

Lydia and Scott had seen her house plenty of times – especially the former, who had been attending Hale meetings since she was a baby – but it didn’t change the fact that this was Cora’s _home_. They could be familiar with it as much as they wanted to, it was still under her control.

Well, mostly under her mother’s, but her friends wouldn’t make the difference. Even Malia knew to listen to Cora when they were in the house, and her cousin _lived there_.

“If they make a single wrong move, I say we kill them,” Malia said seriously, grinning widely when Scott’s scent soured with fear and alarm. “And remember, don’t let them get the upper hand. This is our house and they can’t take it away from us. They’re allowed in the library, the kitchen, and the living room, but the upper floors are off limits.”

“And more importantly, remember that they’re here for a reason,” Cora added. “This isn’t a fun study group created to entertain ourselves; our goal is to get the projects done as fast as possible so we don’t have to spend any more time with them than strictly necessary.”

“And no canoodling,” Stiles raised his voice, even though Scott could hear them perfectly well through the door. “Seriously, Scottie, I don’t want to see you and Allison doing anything strange whilst we’re trying to work.”

“You guys have such a weird relationship,” Kira rolled her eyes, opening the front door again and effectively putting an end to their conversation. “Welcome to the Hale House, people!”

“We know where we are, Yukimura,” Jackson rolled his eyes. “Just let us in already, we can see all your little friends behind you. Was Hale too scared to open the door herself?”

“ _Hale_ was busy plotting the many ways in which she could ruin your day,” Cora snarled, turning around and stomping towards the library. “Follow me or get out of this house. We have business to attend to and I’m not in the mood to give you the full tour. I’m sure Lydia and Scott will be more than happy to take care of it for you when we go on a break.”

“I can’t believe you guys never invited us to these secret meetings before,” Danny sighed as he looked around the house dreamily. “Seriously, you come here every month? And you never thought we might want to visit the Hale House too? I’m willing to bet Stilinski has been here before, and he’s not supernatural.”

“I could be,” Stiles gasped mock-offendedly, stepping into the library right behind Cora and taking the seat next to her at their usual research table. “Besides, the meetings aren’t events with a plus-one quota. I was only allowed to attend once I became friends with Kira, Malia, _and_ Cora. The Hales figured that since I already knew everything, I might as well attend the meetings. Doubly so now that I’m dating Derek.”

“You’re dating _Derek_?” Allison gaped, nudging Scott in the ribs. “Why didn’t you tell me your brother was dating an adult werewolf?! That has to break at least five different hunter rules.”

“Luckily for Derek and me, we don’t give a shit about your hunter rules,” Stiles grinned ferally, _daring_ Allison to bring his family into this. Cora added her own piercing stare to the mix, knowing the other girl still felt bad about her aunt’s past mistakes. “And I doubt Scott even knew about my relationship, since he’s far too busy with his own friends and love life.”

“What? I mean- I didn’t-” Scott stammered, blushing darkly when all his friends shot him disappointed looks. “So it may have slipped my mind. No big deal. Why don’t you guys get started on those projects, huh? I know they’re probably going to take a while, so I thought I’d just wander through the library, see what I could find… Are you with me, Jackson?”

“Oh, no, no,” Malia grinned wickedly. “You guys are with _me_ today. I know the others are going to be too busy with their work to visit the Hale grounds, but that’s no reason for you not to get the full Hale experience.”

“I’ll pass,” Jackson started, curling his lip when Malia ignored him and grabbed his arm, somehow dragging the two grown men – including one werewolf – out of the room with a wink in Cora’s direction. “Danny! _Danny_!”

His voice trailed off as Malia finally pushed them outside, leaving the rest of the group behind in complete silence. Cora hadn’t realised how much relief Malia could bring to a conversation until she was gone and the two trios of friends (plus Theo, who really didn’t belong to either friend group) were staring each other down uncomfortably.

“I think we should just get started,” Stiles clapped his hands together, plastering a smile onto his face. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can all go back to our individual lives and forget about this god-awful study session. I don’t know about you guys, but my boyfriend is waiting for me upstairs and I’d really much rather be there than here.”

“I still can’t believe you’re dating Derek Hale,” Danny said, sounding vaguely impressed. “I mean, I knew there was no way you were straight, but _Derek Hale_? Don’t tell Jackson I said this, but that guy is the jackpot and I would have definitely tried something if I had known I had a chance.”

“You wouldn’t have had one,” Cora snorted. “Stiles is just special like that. Besides, Jackson might have murdered my entire family if you had left him for my brother. Now, you guys should really go look up some fun facts about Sweden. Maybe you could even help Allison find reading material on Portugal, since Zoey isn’t here. Just please don’t touch anything that looks even vaguely supernatural. My mom will know and you _will_ pay for it.”

“Duly noted,” Danny drawled.

“I know the drill,” Stiles saluted, dragging his two designated partners away from the table and towards the rows and rows of books. “You guys are in for a treat; the Hale library is the biggest library in town, and _yes_ I’m including the school one in that statement. Get ready to have your minds blown away.”

_And then there were four_.

“Can we just get this over with?” Theo rolled his eyes. “This is the last place I want to be, and I only showed up because Jackson has some dirt on me. I promise I’ll do half the project if you can promise me we’ll be done by the end of the day.”

“Works for me,” Kira exclaimed, standing up and gesturing for Theo to follow her. “I don’t know this library quite as well as Cora and Stiles do, but I’m pretty sure I can find my way around without getting too lost. In the meantime… What do you know about Greece? Have you ever been there?”

They disappeared around the corner of a bookshelf, and Cora finally found herself alone with the one person she had been avoiding for months – for _years_. She couldn’t even remember the last time she and Lydia had talked to each other outside of the monthly Hale meetings. Even then, they only interacted because their parents always stared at them judgementally when they didn’t.

It had been so long since they had been together like this, and Cora’s heart panged longingly as memories of her childhood with Lydia flooded her mind. Sometimes, she wished high school had never happened. She wished the redhead could have been content with what they had had, could have accepted Cora’s flaws even if they didn’t fit in well with Lydia’s popularity.

However, that wasn’t how things had worked out, and Cora knew better than to lose herself in fantasies of what could have been. She knew better than to think about what her relationship with Lydia could have become had the redhead not left her side.

“Right, well, the stuff on France is still in the row on the far left, right?” Lydia coughed, breaking the tension and raising her eyebrows at Cora questioningly. “You haven’t moved it since the last time we had to do research on the Argents, I’m assuming.”

“Of course we didn’t move it,” Cora snarked. “Do you think we really go around lifting heavy objects and rearranging our house for fun? We have better things to do with our lives, Lydia.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Lydia huffed. “Because you and your friends are just so busy all the time with your many hobbies and your lack of social lives.”

“That was uncalled for,” Cora hissed. “Just because we’re not the most popular kids in school doesn’t mean we don’t have things to do outside of school. Go find those books, Lydia, I don’t want to get into an argument with you about which one of us has the best group of friends.”

“Because you know you’d lose,” Lydia murmured as she walked away, shooting Cora a victorious glance when the brunette growled lowly.

God, she was a bitch. A beautiful, smart, and witty one, but a bitch nonetheless. Cora wasn’t sure when the redhead had changed into the person she was today, demeaning and superior and too busy for people like Cora, but it never failed to get on the werewolf’s nerves.

Lydia had been so sweet, once upon a time, and Cora knew that sweet girl was still in there somewhere. She just wasn’t sure the layers of gossip and passive-aggressiveness and fake friends were worth that sweetness. She wasn’t sure she wanted to dig deep only to find out that Lydia wasn’t the person Cora had fallen in love with all those years ago anymore.

Maybe there had been a reason behind their careful dance, maybe they had been right to avoid each other. Ever since freshman year and their strange friendship break-up, there had been an underlying tension between them that Cora hadn’t been ready to face. Honestly, she wasn’t ready to face it now, either. All she wanted to do was get this project over with and forget about Lydia once and for all.

Maybe this was exactly what she needed; closure and a reminder that no matter how well they had worked together once upon a time, Lydia and Cora weren’t meant to be.

“Are the others still not back?” Lydia frowned as she sat down, placing three books in front of them. “I didn’t think your library was _this_ hard to navigate. I found those books easily.”

Cora bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from pointing out that Lydia had also spent her entire childhood in that library, learning and learning and learning some more. Still, the brunette couldn’t help but wonder if Lydia was still as knowledge-thirsty as she had once been, or if she had hidden her passion for books along with her intelligence.

“Are you really not going to talk to me?” Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at Cora. “Are we still doing this? I know you’ve always been mad at me for making new friends once we entered high school, but we’re on a project together, Cora. You can’t just act like I don’t exist.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware I was _allowed_ to talk to you,” Cora grit out, baring her teeth at the other girl. “Blame me all you want for our falling out, Lydia, but I’m not the one who started ignoring you once you got better friends.”

“I didn’t start ignoring you,” Lydia rolled her eyes. “You just stopped talking to me because your territorial ass couldn’t handle seeing me with other people. You treated me like I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone else, and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Besides, you seem awfully cosy with your new possy.”

“They’re not my possy,” Cora muttered. “They’re my friends. And yes, I’m awfully cosy with them, since they treat me like I matter and don’t ignore me even when they’re with other people. Don’t make excuses for yourself and your behaviour, Lydia. You didn’t want us to be friends anymore, and I respect that. Just don’t act like I’m the reason why we no longer hang out outside of meetings.”

“ _Woah_ , I’ll admit I may have been a little harsh when we became freshmen, and our falling out may have mostly been my fault, but you’re the one who kept that distance even when I tried to reach out,” Lydia pointed at her accusingly. “I’ve been trying to talk to you again for an entire year, but you turn me away at every corner.”

“Excuse me for trying to avoid another heartbreak,” Cora murmured. “Now, why don’t we focus on this project, huh? The last thing we’d want is for us to have to hang out again because we didn’t manage to get it done in one afternoon.”

“Oh yes, because that would be torture, wouldn’t it?” Lydia snorted derisively. “Wouldn’t want to spend time with people who actually have a clue what they want in life. Maybe it’s better for you to wallow in misery with people like Stilinski and your cousin.”

“Don’t talk about them like-”

“And we’re back!” Stiles grinned tensely, placing his hand on Cora’s need as he sat down again. “Allison wanted to look at a few more books which is why it took us so long, but we’re ready to get cracking now. And since I so kindly showed her around, Allison even promised to help you with your French History presentation. Isn’t that great?”

“Wonderful,” Lydia smiled.

“Absolutely perfect,” Cora agreed, wincing when Stiles dug his nails into her leg painfully – she still didn’t know how he had learned to hurt a werewolf, but she wasn’t sure she _wanted_ to know.

“Well then, all is good,” Stiles smiled. “Open your books and get to work.”

Cora and Lydia stared at each other intensely for a few more moments, but Cora broke their petty contest before it could get too far, focusing on the book in front of her as best as possible.

It was just two weeks. Two weeks and she would never have to talk to Lydia again.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, they aced the project. Mister Yukimura was impressed by their research, their efforts, and their _cooperation_.

Right. As though that had had anything to do with their success. The two of them hadn’t seen each other once after that day at Cora’s house. They had communicated through texts and their friends and had somehow managed to pull the entire presentation off without a hitch.

Honestly, if they hadn’t both been top students in their history class, Cora was almost certain they would have failed. Their relationship hadn’t gotten any better as time passed except for the fact that they had stopped the passive insults and moved onto the more direct ones. They still didn’t talk to each other outside of classes, unlike Stiles and Danny who had started forming an odd friendship – and whatever the hell was going on between Kira and Theo.

They were still at an impasse and, although Cora had been all for going back to the way things had been all through high school… Well, if their project had taught her one thing it was that, despite everything, she still cared about Lydia. She still found her smart and pretty and kind and wonderful, and she still wanted to kiss her every time she opened her damn mouth.

But nothing had changed, she told herself. Nothing had changed, and the meeting would go the same way it always did; Cora and Lydia would smile at each other and make small talk about school as the adults discussed important things, and they would then let their friends drag them the hell away from each other. There was no reason for things to go any differently, because nothing had changed.

“I’m pretty sure my dad is watching you to see if you’re going to act differently now that you and Lydia are such great friends again,” Kira whispered as the younger attendants broke away from the adult ones after the mandatory few minutes spent talking about Beacon Hills’ latest supernatural drama. “He hasn’t said anything about it to me, but I overheard him and my mom talking, and I’m pretty sure he’s been using our class as a matchmaking experiment.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cora hissed as Lydia started walking towards them. “Your dad has been using our class to test out group projects, not to create couples and spread love or whatever.”

“If my dad wanted to test group projects, don’t you think he would have created groups slightly larger than two people?” Kira pointed out, grimacing sympathetically as Lydia reached their side. “Well, good luck with the small talk and remember what I said. I wouldn’t put it past him to start another group project just to reach his goal.”

“What’s his goal?” Cora asked, struggling not to raise her voice as Kira walked away and joined Stiles, Scott, and Allison – who had only just started attending these meetings as a hunter and a werewolf’s girlfriend. “Kira, what the hell is his goal?”

“Who are we talking about?” Lydia asked casually, taking her usual seat on the sofa next to Cora. They had their routine down to a tee, and Cora wasn’t about to let Kira’s dad get in their heads and ruin everything they had been working on for years.

“Kira’s dad,” Cora sighed, discreetly glancing at the man in question and groaning when she noticed that he was, indeed, trying to look their way. “Kira seems to think he’s been using his classroom as some sort of matchmaking attempt. I have no idea what he’s aiming for here, but I doubt he’s going to find it.”

“Wait, what?” Lydia frowned. “Cora, he paired me with _Danny_ for the first project, and I’m pretty sure he knows neither one of us are straight. Whatever Kira told you, it’s probably not true. Maybe she’s the one trying to matchmake.”

“Why on earth would Kira try to set the two of us up?” Cora whispered furiously, trying her best not to think about the many, many times she had told her best friends about her crush on Lydia. She had been hiding all her pining behind heaps of insults and derisive comments, but her friends knew her well enough to discern her lies from the reality.

“I don’t know, she’s not _my_ friend,” Lydia rolled her eyes. “So if she’s trying to do something about us, I’m going to bet it has to do with your love life and relationships rather than mine. Have you ever even dated anyone? Maybe she’s getting desperate and thinks you’re gay enough to go for me even though you hate me.”

“Woah, I never said anything about hate,” Cora corrected. Technically, she _had_ said something along those lines, but never to Lydia’s face. It was one thing to lie about her feelings to her friends and another to lie about them to Lydia, who wouldn’t be able to realise she was lying as well as the others would. “And I’m not desperate. I’m pretty sure Kira would have told me if she was trying to set me up, since she’s mentioned it plenty of times in the past.”

“Wait, your friends seriously try to set you up with people?” Lydia’s eyebrows flew up. “I thought you had a crush on someone. Or at least, that’s- That’s what Scott told me. Apparently he overheard Stiles speaking to you one day about your long-time crush, so he assumed…”

“You’ve been asking your friends to _spy_ on me?” Cora narrowed her eyes at the redhead. “Seriously? If you wanted to know more about me and my life, you could have just asked me. You know, tried to approach me like a normal person instead of getting your little friends to follow me around for information.”

“Scott and Stiles live together, remember?” Lydia pointed out sharply. “I’m not obsessed with you, Cora, Scott just knew that it was something I might want to know.”

“Why on earth would you want to know about my crushes?” Cora asked disbelievingly. As far as she was aware, Lydia couldn’t have cared less about Cora and the people in her life. She barely even talked to Derek anymore, even though the two of them had been close when they had been younger. Sometimes, Cora even wondered if her brother resented her for taking away one of his good friends.

Now wasn’t the time to think about that, though, because Lydia was staring at her with wide, nervous eyes, and Cora had a feeling she was missing something important there.

“ _Do_ you want to know about my crushes?” She asked uncertainly. “I mean, not that I especially have a crush on anyone, but why would you want to know about that? We couldn’t even stand to be in the same room to work on our project together, I doubt you’d want to talk to me about my love life. My very boring, inexistent love life, by the way.”

“I just…” Lydia started, glancing around the room and stiffening as she looked at the adults standing a few feet away from them.

Now, Cora was used to living in a house full of werewolves who could hear all your conversations and eavesdrop on private moments with your friends. Once upon a time, Lydia had been used to it too. However, things were different now, and Cora had a feeling this conversation wasn’t one Lydia wanted to have in front of their families. And as reluctant as the brunette was to break their routine and leave the room alone, she was far more reluctant to make Lydia uncomfortable.

She – stupidly, naïvely – still loved the redhead too much to make her say whatever it was that was bothering her around the entire Hale pack.

“We can go to my bedroom,” she sighed, grimacing when her parents perked up and her uncle shot her a proud glance. God, she hated her family sometimes. “It’s soundproofed so no one will be able to _listen in on us_. That’s right, mom, look away and pretend like you haven’t been listening to us for the past twenty minutes. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I thought you were adults who had to deal with adult things, but clearly that was all a façade.”

She dragged Lydia out of the room before any of her relatives could get offended or rebuke her for her whispered words. There was an unspoken rule in the house that werewolves weren’t allowed to say things quietly when there were humans or other supernaturals around because it wasn’t polite. Then again, Cora had never been the best at following the rules. She got it from her siblings.

Still, she didn’t leave fast enough to miss the whispered ‘ _your plan is working perfectly_ ’ that her mother whispered in Mister Yukimura’s direction. God, she hated adults.

“I haven’t been here in a while,” Lydia swallowed nervously as they walked into Cora’s bedroom and closed the door behind them. “It’s… different.”

Of course it was different. The pictures on the walls were mostly of her friends now, and her old posters had been replaced by new ones as her tastes changed. Her sheets were a different colour, her walls had been painted over a few times, and her bed was bigger. She had grown up, and her room had grown up with her. She just wished Lydia had been there to see it happen.

“I like it,” the redhead said after a few seconds of silence. “I just- I know I messed up, alright? I know I shouldn’t have left you behind once I got popular, and I know I acted like a really bitch sometimes. Hell, I still do. But if there’s one thing the project taught me, it’s that I miss you a lot more than I thought I did. And I already missed you a _lot_.”

Cora wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. On one hand, she was delighted to hear the girl she loved tell her that she missed her almost as much as Cora did. On the other hand, she… She didn’t know what to think about it. She and Lydia hadn’t been friends in quite a few years, and although they had never completely lost track of each other or fallen out of each other’s lives, they could barely stand each other most of the time.

“I want to know about your crushes because I want to know about you,” Lydia added when it became clear that Cora wasn’t going to say anything. “It’s pathetic and a little weird, but I want to know about you; I want to know about the girl who was once my best friend and who is now this amazing person who has her life figured out. I left you behind because I thought you would come running back to me after a few weeks. Instead you showed me that you know how to live without me, and I… I always wanted you back.”

“But there is no taking back,” Cora answered immediately. “You can’t change what already happened, and you can’t get the old Cora back. She doesn’t exist anymore, and I- I don’t know what you want me to do, Lydia. We’ve barely been friends for the past few years, and now you’re telling me you want us to hang out together all the time again?”

“No,” Lydia ground out. “I know you’ve changed, and I know I’ve changed as well, far too much for us to go back to the way things were. But we can still… We can still be something, right? Something different, sure, but still _something_. That’s all I’m asking for. A chance to show you we can be something just as great as best friends without being best friends.”

“Oh really? And how’s that?”

“Who’s your crush, Cora?” Lydia asked, leaning against the bedroom door and effectively cutting off the brunette’s only means of escape. “Just tell me who she is, and if it’s not me I’ll walk right out of here. However, I have reason to believe that despite all our antagonism and fights and misunderstandings from the past few years, you _still_ like me. Maybe you’ve liked me for a lot longer than I might have believed.”

“Probably,” Cora shrugged, groaning as she realised what she had just admitted too. She was spending far too much time with Malia if she was blurting things out like that without even thinking them through. “I mean-”

“It’s been a year and a half for me,” Lydia cut her off, looking sheepish and hopeful and slightly regretful. “I don’t even know how it happened, and I don’t know how I didn’t realise that the potential was always there between us, but it’s been a year and a half. When I first realised I had a crush on you, I still thought you hated me. We hadn’t talked in two years and I wasn’t sure we were ever going to be friends again, so I just- I didn’t say anything.”

“ _You_ have a crush on _me_?” Cora snorted. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“You think I know?!” Lydia exclaimed. “Because believe me, I don’t. The only thing I know is that you used to be my best friend and you’re not anymore but I still found a way to love you. My heart still found a way to pull me back to you, and then we were paired together on this project, and I’m not one to believe in fate but that’s exactly what this entire thing feels like.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Cora bit out, but she was already stepping closer to Lydia, her gaze fixed on the redhead’s lips. “And this isn’t me forgiving you for everything you did during freshman year. However, it _has_ been a lot longer than a year and a half for me, so I’m not going to wait a second longer.”

And she didn’t. She kissed Lydia long and hard and _desperate_ , and she slammed the redhead against the door so she could kiss her even more. There were fireworks going off inside her head and her heart had never beaten so fast, and she had never felt better than when Lydia kissed her back.

When she pulled away from the redhead, she knew her eyes were probably glowing a bright gold, but she also knew Lydia wouldn’t mind. She had never minded, and she wasn’t about to start now. So Cora stared at her, golden eyes and all, and she smiled softly.

“If you let me do that over and over again, I _may_ forgive you for the past few years,” she teased Lydia, chuckling when the redhead rolled her eyes and slapped Cora’s shoulder before leaning in for another kiss. “Wait, wait.”

“What?” Lydia grumbled, her pout intensifying when Cora opened the door behind the redhead. “Seriously? Do you _want them_ to spy on us?”

“Of course not,” Cora huffed. “I just need to say thank you to Kira’s dad. Thank you for the matchmaking, Ken! Mom, pass the message along.”

She closed the door again and grinned brightly at Lydia’s disgruntled but fond features. The redhead looked like she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to punch Cora in the face or kiss her wildly. And as fun as the first option sounded, given the fact that Cora was a werewolf, she had to admit that she _really_ wanted Lydia’s lips back on hers.

“So…” She murmured, smiling lovingly at Lydia. “Where were we?”

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! As always, these fics are unbeta'ed and unedited so you'll have to excuse any mistakes! Em wanted some Cora/Lydia today, and what Em wants Em gets, so here it is. I added plenty of friendships and side pairings because I couldn't help myself, but I hope you still enjoyed the girls' little love story. 
> 
> Love, Junie. 
> 
> (find me on [tumblr](https://hopesilverheart.tumblr.com/))


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